25th June, 2012
A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday restrained the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) from conducting the local government elections pending the determination of a suit before it.
At the resumed hearing of the case, Justice Charles Achibong, said that counsel to the plaintiff, Mr Ajibola Oluyede, had written to the court to stand down the matter.
Achibong said that the reason given by Oluyede was that he was in the Court of Appeal, Lagos, for another matter.
The judge, however, stood down the matter till 1 p.m but later adjourned it to July 4 because the plaintiff’s counsel was not in court.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Chairman of PDP in Ogun, Mr Adebayo Dayo, had filed a committal proceeding against OGSIEC.
The plaintiff is seeking to commit the defendants to prison for allegedly disobeying the court’s ruling of May 2, 2012.
The court had bared OGSIEC from accepting nominations of candidates from the PDP for the local government election.
The court had then specifically restrained OGSIEC, its agents and officials from dealing with any other persons or groups except the plaintiff pending the determination of the committal proceeding.
The judge also restrained OGSIEC from publishing or processing names of persons submitted to it as candidates of the PDP for the state’s 2012 Local Government elections by any other person.